Wind in the Mists

They say time waits for no man, 2010 for me has progressed at a blistering pace. It’s that time of the year when we take stock of our achievements throughout the year and analyse the areas that seemed to fall into a loop preventing us from progressing in a more effective way. Well with every review one needs to come up with a modified or completely new plan though the modification is always the first best steps as a lot of effort is already made on the initial ideas.

As an aspiring leader and a current observer and critic of government policy, I have realised from experiences shared by some of my political friends in government that political activism is not the same as politics in government. It’s more complicated when one takes over from a cleaned out government reserve account where all credit lines have either been exhausted or simple not there because of various political reasons. I have learnt that in any entity when you are dependent on a third party for financial support, be it donations in kind , AID packages or loans you have very little control in what you can deliver, as delivery is solely based on meeting the demands of your partner investors. But then can we say all avenues have been extensively exhausted or has the GNU tried to cherry pick their preferred investments based on perhaps pre-agreed arrangements which were never a part of the GNU but perhaps part of one political party’s goals.

One of the things that stood out for me in the past year is coming to grips with the influence politics has on a lot of Zimbabweans, I think in the whole world Zimbabweans are now probably the most politically literate population in the world. However this literacy does not translate progressively nor make them champions in resolving political differences as we have seen how we have gradually become like another Palestinian cause, the difference being the varying levels of violence used to influence political control.

In every socio-economic and political environment there is always the good and bad side of development. I think for those who were in Zimbabwe before elections they can agree that there have been some visible changes brought about by the GNU partnership on the economic and political front to a particular level. Never the less more could have been done in terms of policy change and implementation in areas agreed in the GPA agreement, perhaps it’s time to review the process and see where tighter controls can be introduced for the purpose of measuring service delivery by those appointed into positions of responsibility and authority.

Looking at all the changes that took place I still fail to understand why the dual citizenship issue to facilitate the return of externalised Zimbabweans back was never prioritised and aggressively pursued by all political parties, special interest groups and lobbyist. I feel government could have temporally authorised it pending the completion of the constitution making process as this could have necessitated the recreation of a stronger middle working class. I think also when looking at reviews (if it happens) it will be important for leaders to try and look into ways of addressing the question of non-partisan enforcement. I believe the GPA is flawed as it blindly promotes the control of the security services based on the political party power structures, by effectively agreeing for an opposition political party leader to control the security services it made them more political than non-partisan. Perhaps we should ask independent external experts to come help with the reform the security services as was done in the first years of Independence where we had Pakistan and Tanzanian Commissioners coming to help with management of senior positions over a 2 year period.

Besides all the challenges government has been facing the greatest of them all is ‘US!’ the public’s attitudes to development. The sad truth is we have been brought up in a culture of dependency where we expect everything to be channelled from government and have focussed most of our attention based on expectations of a political solution to our problems. I think we must only expect government to complement our ideas not expect ideas from government. There is a saying …

“God helps those who help themselves”

It is fair to say that God’s (Allah, Jah, Almighty, self-etc.) help is more likely to be effective if you are earnestly trying to do your part to help yourself. And sometimes, God can't EFFECTIVELY help a guy who's working too hard to unhelp himself.

The true goal of human life is happiness, peace, satisfaction, fulfilment, well-being, enlightenment. So, the best place to apply the principle "God helps those who help themselves" may be in the emotional/psychological aspect of life. There we find the most direct and powerful impact on personal happiness and well-being. And there can be no doubt that God is more interested in SPIRITUAL wealth than material wealth.

So I challenge you to write down what you have achieved in the past 2 years, then write down what you plan to achieve by the end of next year. Make sure you keep that note safe, treat it like your most treasured item, pull it out this time next year and review and see how much from your plan you achieved. Remember achievement does not have to be material but could be simple kicking bad habits or changing the way you communicate with other people.

“I wish you all a happy and peaceful festive season and all the best for the coming year!”